


a soft place to fall

by cinderfell



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/M, Plans For The Future, Post-Chroma Conclave
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-23
Updated: 2017-01-23
Packaged: 2018-09-19 09:29:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9432839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cinderfell/pseuds/cinderfell
Summary: With the help of a blanket, a bottle of wine, and Percy, Vex plans out her house.





	

**Author's Note:**

> dear lord this was supposed to be 500 words and got out of hand
> 
> title is from "runaway" by aurora which is a _really_ good vex song

Stars stretch out above her as she sits back on a blanket in the middle of her patch of land, staring up at the spots of light that glimmer against the inky sky while her finger absently circles the brim of the wine bottle she brought out with her on this excursion. The night is quiet save for the distant sounds of townsfolk in the city below the hill and bird songs from the forest behind her. It’s peaceful; easy to get lost looking at the strings of starlight. She makes a note for lots of windows and, if she can swing it, perhaps a skylight. She’s not sure how well it would hold up against the notorious Whitestone winters, but it’s worth looking into if possible.

“It’s still a bit cold for a picnic,” a voice from behind her calls, and she turns to find Percy standing a few paces away looking at her with a perplexed but curious expression on his face.

“I was just thinking,” she says, reaching over to pat a spot on the blue blanket next to her. “I wouldn’t mind some company if you’re offering it, though.”

He obviously is, accepting the place she makes for him and sitting down cross-legged. “Are you thinking about anything in particular?”

“My house.” Vex takes a sip from her bottle, and the liquid is almost as sweet as her next words. “My home.”

“Ah,” Percy says with a nod, now eyeing her drink. “I take it you found the wine cellar then?”

She shoots him a timid smile. “I only took this one. If it’s a problem I’m sure I can reimburse you and Cassandra.”

He waves her off. “It should be fine. We don’t get a lot of use out of it these days.”

“Well, _we_ did,” she reminds him, bumping his shoulder playfully with hers.

Percy snorts. “True.”

She offers him the bottle and after a moment of consideration he takes in from her, tasting it before letting out a hum of approval at her choice. Vex tilts her head to one side as she watches him drink, admiring the way the moonlight plays off the sharp angles of his jaw and the stark white of his hair. Percy’s quite the pretty picture like this.

He offers the bottle back to her again and she accepts, swishing the wine around absently as she looks around at the empty patch of land they sit in. _Her_ empty patch of land, although hopefully it won’t remain empty for long. Percy nudges her with his elbow, drawing her attention back to him before he speaks. “You said you were thinking about your house?”

She nods. “I’ve been thinking about what I want it to look like.” Vex pauses, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth. “Although, I’m not actually sure how involved I’ll actually get to be in the construction.”

“You can be as involved as you want to be,” Percy says instantly, earning a small smile from her.

“That’s good then.” After a moment of content silence, she slowly raises a hand and points to a patch of ground a few feet away from them where the snow has melted and grass has begun to brighten up the gray-brown expanse of dirt. “That’s going to be the kitchen.”

“Is it?” Percy raises an eyebrow and follows her finger to the ‘kitchen’ in question. He seems to consider this for a moment and she can see the gears in his head spinning as he paints out the picture in his head. Finally, he offers, “With big windows overlooking the city?”

“Yes!” Vex claps him on the shoulder with a laugh. “Ooh, and a little garden just beneath the windows. I bet Keyleth and Pike would love to help me with that.”

“I can see it.”

Vex can see it too. She’ll fill the garden with native plants and flowers, let them grow wild and healthy without over-manicuring them into something they shouldn’t be. She wonders briefly if she could send somebody to find seeds of the little blue flowers that used to grow in her mother’s garden in Byroden, wonders if perhaps she could go herself-- maybe with Percy-- and plant them among the Whitestone flora. A little touch of her first home for her new one.

“What else?” Percy asks softly, drawing her away from thoughts of little blue flowers.

So she tells him what else, passing the wine back and forth between them as she speaks. She tells him about the study that will sit at the far end of her property with rows and rows of bookshelves she’ll stock up with literature she’s found from her travels. (He offers to give her the book with the goristro in it as a token of remembrance for the time they awkwardly danced around each other in the library, prompting a laugh from her.) She traces the outline of a large room in the air and proudly tells him that’ll be her bedroom, with an adjoining room specifically for Trinket. Percy seems amused but unsurprised that Trinket will be getting his own room-- and they both know Trinket will likely spend most of his time wherever Vex is anyways-- but doesn’t comment about it, which she appreciates.

“It’ll be a simple room, really,” she continues, watching his face closely. “It’ll have a bed for him but mostly it’ll be… pretty _bare_.”

Percy’s face predictably twists up in distaste, his heavy brow furrowing. “Suddenly all the paperwork I have up in the castle sounds much more appealing.”

“No!” She laughs and grapples his arm with her own, holding him fast despite him showing no signs of actually leaving her side. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry! Please stay.”

He rolls his eyes. “Well, I suppose. No more bear puns, though.”

“No more,” she promises, even as she files away more bear puns for later use.

She spends the next couple of minutes finishing off her vision of the house, painting with words exactly what she sees to him. Percy offers suggestions here and there but mostly sits back and nods as she speaks. Eventually her words trail off and she settles against him, content in the comfortable silence folding over them like a familiar blanket.

“You know,” Percy starts slowly, startling her as he breaks the silence and takes a long swig from the bottle before he continues. “While your house is being built, there are plenty of rooms in the castle that you can use.”

She raises an eyebrow at him, taking the bottle from him again and tapping the brim of it against her bottom lip as if she’s thinking deeply instead of trying to hide the smile that’s starting to creep across her face. “I don’t suppose you have a specific room in mind, do you?”

“There’s the one you’re staying in currently.” The tips of Percy’s ears darken ever so slightly. “Or my room could more than accommodate both of us if you wish.”

“Why, Percival!” Her voice raises slightly and she covers her heart with a hand as if rendered aghast, the smile playing at her lips now grown too much to hide behind her bottle. “Are you asking me to move in with you?”

The blush at the tips of his ears spreads down across his pale cheeks in the most lovely way before his eyes snap down to meet her gaze, impressively unwavering. “What if I was?”

She sets the bottle down next to her, carefully balancing it on the uneven ground beneath the blanket so it won’t spill over, and leans forward so she’s a breath away from him, the tips of their noses brushing. He inhales sharply at her sudden proximity and she can’t help the way her smile edges ever so closer to a shit-eating grin. It’s funny. They’ve been bare of any clothing and pressed flush against each other dozens of times now, but it’s moments like this that always make Percy the most flustered. It’s incredibly endearing.

When she speaks, her voice is soft. “I would agree that your room seems like the most appealing option.”

“Ah,” he says again, more than a little taken aback but not unpleased in the slightest. “Good, that’s-- I mean, I think that’s quite agreeable.”

“Quite,” Vex agrees before closing the distance between them. He goes almost comically still for a moment, then melts into her.

She still has trouble wrapping her head around the fact that she gets to do this whenever she wants, and she suspects that he still has trouble with it too. Vex can reach over for him at any time and press her lips against his; she could jump him in the middle of a council meeting and kiss him in front of everybody-- it would probably be frowned on, but she _could_ do it. It’s exciting. A little terrifying and still new, but incredibly exciting.

“After my house is built, I think my bedroom would be more than able to accommodate two people,” she says after they part and settle back against each other, nuzzling closer to him and savoring his warmth as he wraps an arm around her.  


She can see a smile pull at the corners of his lips. “Are you asking me to move into your house that isn’t even built yet? Right after we established that you’re already moving in with me?”

“Hey, I didn’t say my offer nullifies your offer.” She shrugs. “We’ll just have options. Flexibility.”

“I do like flexibility,” Percy murmurs, and Vex snorts.

“Besides, the only thing better than having a home is having two homes within walking distance of each other.”

“Well, I don’t have any argument to that.”

She glances over at the patch of earth just to the right of them, the last room that she didn’t tell him about gnawing at her mind. Well, since he already agreed to spending time in the house...

“I’m thinking of a workshop. In the basement,” she says, and she feels him still next to her. Vex tilts her face up to look at him and finds that he looks like a man that was just hit over the head with something heavy. A little more timidly, she continues, “Nothing too fancy. It would just be something for convenience. You have your workshop in the castle already so you probably wouldn’t need another big, complicated one, but it would be nice to have for simple projects.”

Percy is quiet for a long time before he speaks, and when he does his voice is low and has an unmistakable quiver to it. “You want to put a room specifically for me in your home?”

“Of course, darling,” she says with what she hopes is enough confidence for him. “But only if you want me to.”

He pulls away from her and just looks at her for a moment, his blue eyes searching her face for something. Whatever he finds seems to satisfy him and his eyes glisten a little too brightly as he reaches up to cup her face and kiss her softly. When she laughs it’s muffled against him, a low rumble in the back of his throat echoing in response.

Vex pulls back enough to speak, their foreheads pressed against each other. “So I take it that’s a yes to the workshop?”

He answers her with another kiss, and that’s a clear affirmation if ever she’s seen one.


End file.
